Overwatch:
Team Hero Shooters: Overwatch versus Paladins
Overwatch vs Paladins: Let's Do the NumbersTime Played:
43 Hours of Overwatch
5.5 Hours of Paladins
I must stress, repeatedly, that during the pandemic of 2020 and 2021, I started playing more games with friends.
After two seasons of Apex Legends, we switched for a short time to Paladins, while another friend persuaded me to try Overwatch. This article offers a comparison and insight for anyone considering between the two.
The genre is Multiplayer Hero Shooters. Players compete as a team against another opposing team. They control a character with unique abilities, while shooting from a 1st person perspective. Though some criticized Paladins as an Overwatch clone, the COO of Hi-Rez (Paladin's publisher) defended the game saying it was inspired by Team Fortress 2. I haven't played TF2 in a decade, but that rational seems dubious. A more logical argument says Overwatch was inspired by TF2, and Paladins from Overwatch.
Overwatch released in 2016 with Paladins following in 2018. From their visual effects one would assume the opposite order. Overwatch still looks good in 2021, while Paladins appeared dated on release. Visuals aren't everything, unless they hamper the game. Overwatch's clearly communicate information while entertaining the eye. Paladins function adequately in both regards.
The visual effect isn't a surprise. Paladins is a free to play game, while Overwatch cost $40 on release ($60 for consoles), and still requires $20 a half decade later. Paladins story isn't completely truthful. Some free to play games, like Dota, provide all the content for free. Hearthstone isn't free, because players need to grind hundreds of hours to unlock the content. Paladins is free to play, but only one-third of the heroes are available. The game cycles through a rotating cast of free heroes. Heroes can be unlocked by play, but it would require a few dozen hours. Or, the player can purchase all the heroes for $30, making it more expensive than Overwatch.
Overwatch plays with two teams of six, while Paladins pits five versus five. Paladins includes four roles, Flanker, Damage, Tank, and Healer, but it doesn't force any team composition, Playing with a group of four we always fielded at least one tank, damage dealer, and healer, adjusting the other two players depending on the battle type, or a strategy. Overwatch didn't initially mandate a specific team composition. It wasn't until July of 2019 that Blizzard added “Role Queue,” which required a team of 2-2-2 (two Tanks, two Damage Dealers, and two Supports).
The number of Heroes (Overwatch) or Champions (Paladins), are sufficient, but differ by a significant amount. Paladins includes forty-six while Overwatch contains thirty-two. While Paladins has more options, the Heroes of Overwatch feel more distinct than the Champions. An aspect of distinctness is inherent in the controls.
All Champions have the same keybindings. Left click attacks. Right click heals, or aims, or does nothing. Q activates an ability. F engages the Champions special movement or escape. And E casts the Champion's ultimate ability (R reloads). Overwatch doesn't offer the same uniformity. Across four heroes, the same button might function in four distinct effects. For this review I only checked fourteen heroes, so I could have missed something. Let's characterize each type of function in Overwatch. Heroes attack (shoot or swipe at an enemy in close combat), perform an additional melee ability, switch weapons, activate special movement, aim, deploy a Shield, active an ability, or use their ultimate ability. For the purpose of this article, using a Shield is not the same as an ability, since most tanks share a similar Shield effect. Nearly all heroes attack with the left button. But some have more than one type of weapon (switched by clicking 1 or 2), and at least one Hero heals with a left click. After that the cohesion dissipates. The right click button is used to aim, shoot, shield, activate an ability, use a special move, or do nothing. Does Pharah really need their third move button to be the right mouse?
The E button offers uniformity. Almost all heroes use it for an ability, though one hero deploys Shields. Left Shift is the opposite. Some heroes don't have a movement ability, a severe aggravation. Movement abilities can deal damage, but they have to allow the character to jump, fly, charge, or climb walls. While the majority of heroes move with Left Shift, other heroes, denied an escape, use Left Shift for regular abilities or to heal. Baptiste has a movement ability, but uses Shift to heal instead. His movement ability requires clicking Left CTL. No other hero uses Left CTL!
All Heroes use Q for their ultimate ability. This is charged with time, healing, damage sustained, and damage dealt. All Heroes that don't have a melee weapon as their left click attack use V for a bonus close ranged hit. Flying heroes, like Mercy or Pharah, use Space for a second or third movement button. A few heroes, mostly Supports, play with a passive ability, no button required.
Overwatch has difficult, intuitive controls. A lack of standardization inhibits switching from one hero to another. Transferring from one Position to another is difficult enough, but buttons aren't even similar in the same role. For Tanks, Winston has no action for right click, E for shield, and Shift for movement. Reinhardt use right click for a shield, E for an ability, and shift for movement. And Sigma has an ability at right click, another ability on E and his shield on Shift.
This discrepancy irritates more than the Elves arriving to defend Helm's Deep in The Two Towers movie.
At first I thought the maps of Paladins were better. They are more expansive, open, with area to maneuver. Overwatch seemed to funnel combat into narrow choke points. With more experience of the maps, I realized that Overwatch allows for some better opportunities and team play. It's maps are better constructed with a good mix of areas both narrow and open.. Overwatch specializes in vertical movement. Many buildings include second or third floors, and heroes capable climbing or flying. Why can't they land on the top of many buildings? Any building with even a slightly slanted roof slides the player off! Overwatch includes more maps, a larger variety, and they are larger, making for longer matches.
The map depends on the game mode. Overwatch has Competitive and Quick play, which share the same modes. There is also Experimental, which I have never played.
Overwatch includes Assault (the attacking team must attack and capture one location, and then a second), King of the Hill (both teams try to capture the same center point and hold it), Escort (the attacking team pushes a cart along a track to the final destination with check points along the way, like TF2's Payload), and Assault/Escort (which requires the team to capture a point, unlocking the cart, which they push to the end).
In their competitive and casual games Paladins features Death Match (first team to score a certain number of kills wins), Siege (both teams compete for a point in the center, whichever wins captures and pushes the cart to the enemy's base) and Onslaught (like King of the Hill from Overwatch, but teams also earn points for kills).
Who won round one?
Round Two of Overwatch vs. Paladins debuts next week.
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